The The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that initial reports indicated that hundreds of thousands of hectares of agricultural land have been flooded. In the worst-affected areas, urgent needs include basic food, drinking water and sanitation.
The emergency worsens the dire situation in large parts of Myanmar, more than three years after a military coup that has led to escalating fighting, growing displacement and extreme security threats.
Initial, World Food Programme plans to help approximately 35,000 people now sheltered in evacuation centres in Ayeyarwady. Food parcels containing rice and fortified biscuits, along with nutritional support for mothers and children, to prevent acute malnutrition.
Sheela Matthew, WFP Representative in Myanmar, warned that the floods “risk significantly reducing rice harvests during the monsoon” and that likely to “jeopardize smallholder farmers’ food security”.
Big challenges
She added that the impacts of rising waters “are likely to be felt not only in Ayeyarwady but across Myanmar”, hence the WFP’s response “to help mitigate potential food shortages”.
According to the Myanmar Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2024Even before the floods, 1.5 million people in Ayeyarwady were in need of humanitarian assistance – one in four of the population.
The UN aid agency OCHA who issued a bleak assessment of the country last December, noted that then It is estimated that 18.6 million people are in humanitarian need.Children are the victims of the crisis with six million children in need due to displacement, interrupted health and education services, food insecurity and malnutrition, and protection risks, including forced recruitment and mental distress,” the report said.
Rare intervention
The WFP relief effort is the first time the country has provided aid to the delta in nine years. The last time the UN agency provided assistance was in 2015, when widespread flooding occurred.
It has also provided assistance to 130,000 people in communities affected by floods in Myanmar in Bago, Kachin, Kayin, Magway, Mandalay and Sagaing. “WFP is assessing needs in Rakhine and is ready to respond,” the press release said.
The UN agency’s response to the floods also includes conflict-affected areas, with the exception of Ayeyarwady and parts of Bago, some of the few regions in Myanmar free of fighting.
